Armando Romeo Tomagra
Born in Scordia in 1960. Professor since 1990, he has taught at various academies of fine arts including: Sassari, Brera Milan and Palermo. Currently he teaches Fundamentals of theory and technique and landscape photography at the Catania Academy. Published in Italian and foreign magazines. Professional photographer since 1992. He has won prizes in national and international competitions, including: "The international photo contest - Hasselblad open in 1998" Sweden. He has exhibited in Italy and abroad; in his latest solo exhibitions: "Eteroplasmi" Kreis Galerie, Nuremberg Germany 2006, "Etna between heaven and earth" Tertulia Library, Catania 2010. Collective: "Made in Italy" the Orange KTF Gallery, Seoul Korea 2008. "Sicilia eats" Deutsches Hirtenmuseum, Hersbruck Germany 2011. "geographies and histories of transitions" Palazzo Ziino, Palermo 2013. He is currently involved in landscape and portrait photography projects, and in particular on Abstract Photography.
Two words on the work of Armando Romeo Tomagra
text by Marco Miano
These works of Armando Romeo are the result of a concretization of photography possibility remained so far not covered (as far as I know). Armando Romeo manipulates the material on which was impressed the portion of the existing light radiation outside the camera. Ordinarily, we consider our visual perception and impressions on sensitive materials like a plausible and credible image of reality. Many shots of Armando Romeo portray this reality with a look that inspires me a unique vision of the emotion of "real", that sometimes he had not caught me at a time when that same image was imprinted on my retinas, but this also happens to me with some images that portray subjects that I know that he had never seen.
This inner certainty brings with it, necessarily, a doubt on the fulfilment of our vision to reality, and that also, more seriously, on its actual ability.
The illusion that always is upon us can not take that to relativize, if not cancel, our trust in the image as a clue to use for a real mental reconstruction, and confirming the actual existence of the latter; it must, for added peace of mind, resort to postulates and additional data from other sources.
In this exciting (and terrifying) situation Armando Romeo plays with the image that was printed on the photosensitive support by acting on the same support and showing us one of the infinite (?) possibility of further and different images where the same support, we discover, is capable to give rise when it is treated in a non-ordinary manner.
It will, because of this unusual treatment which it has suffered, we believe that it is manifesting something less real than what shows when it is treated in a "normal" manner?
It is not that the illusory nature of our vision separates us from other different visions of unknown dimensions of reality?
I answer that (maybe) is so, and the results of these operations by Armando Romeo carry the photosensitive material to develop other possibilities hidden in the folds of reality: I have therefore called them ETEROPLASMI.
Text by Marco Miano
